Comments on: Stretching Our Food

By: Cass

Cass — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 19:18:25 +0000

My family is a pack of carnivores (when we really shouldn’t be!), and it’s difficult to imagine how a vegetarian/vegan family can stretch their grocery budget. There’s probably a lot of soups, amirite?

By: MommyNamedApril

MommyNamedApril — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 16:55:08 +0000

sounds like you’re doing really well! you should join our grocery challenge http://www.mamalovesfood.com/2010/01/grocery-challenge-2010.html

By: FrugalBabe

FrugalBabe — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 15:56:36 +0000

MC,
We have a large bin with a lid where we store our oats. They come in a huge paper bag, and we just dump them into the bin. Then we have a one gallon container that we refill from the bin and keep in our kitchen. The bin stays in the garage. My brother refers to it as our “dumpster full of oats”

By: Cate

Cate — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 14:26:11 +0000

I love grocery shopping, too–I even start to miss it when we haven’t been in a while! I love cooking, so it’s fun to browse and come up with new meal ideas.

Like your family, our second biggest expense after housing (well, unless you count saving) is food. We’re okay with that. Food is important to us. It gives us joy, it nourishes us. We don’t go out to eat hardly at all. I would rather spend more on food than less–it’s an area where I think the price really corresponds to the quality.

By: mc

mc — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 13:55:25 +0000

How do you store your 50 lb bags of oats? I have thought about buying oats and flour in 50 lb bags, but I am not sure how to keep it in our house.

By: FrugalBabe

FrugalBabe — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 06:08:29 +0000

Thanks for the kind words Deb! Until 2007, we were paying off debt that we incurred to start our business, and it wasn’t until we paid it off that I started buying only organic food. Once we were debt free (other than the mortgage), we felt that it was ok to spend more on our food. I’m impressed with your determination to rid yourselves of those student loans – good luck!

By: Deborah Schneider

Deborah Schneider — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 04:45:53 +0000

Dear FB,

Now I understand. My husband and I do many of the same things that you and your family do: we don’t eat out often (perhaps once or twice a month on date night); we cook nearly everything from scratch (including our bread and yogurt); we buy in bulk (including the 25lb bags of organic soybeans from the food co-op for our soymilk maker); we make our own detergents; we grow some of our own veggies; and we eat no meat and very, very little dairy (our chickens provide our eggs). The one thing we do not do is purchase only organics. Right now, about half of our purchases are organic, and between the two of us, we spend about $75-$80 per week. That seems like a lot to me. It almost hurts at the checkout stand. I know that the most ethical thing to do would be to buy only organic and local, but I cannot seem to get beyond the sticker shock sometimes. I really do admire you for putting aside monetary considerations to make such awesome purchasing decisions. I hope that I will be able to get there one day. Right now, my husband and I are choking a bit on his law school debts while we both work in low-paying public-sector jobs. Technically, we could probably afford to spend just a bit more on food, but I try to put our extra pennies toward chipping away at that 70k burden around our necks, lol. Please keep up the good work and awesome blogging. Peace, Deb

By: Kacie

Kacie — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 02:04:43 +0000

We’re joining a CSA this year and I’m so excited! It’ll be great to have fresh produce all picked out and waiting for me each week. I’m sure I’ll want to supplement my share with a few items from the grocery, but I hope that it’ll save me time and money. Plus, it’ll be easier to eat more healthfully!

I don’t know if a CSA is an option in your area, but maybe it’ll help you save some money.

Even though $600 sounds a bit high, the fact that you don’t go out to eat helps some. Some other family might spend $400 at the supermarket but another few hundred at restaurants each month, for example.

I think it’s ok to splurge in one enjoyable category if you’re conservative in others.

By: FrugalBabe

FrugalBabe — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 22:59:15 +0000

Deb,
I’m not sure if we live in an expensive region – I’d say it’s about average. It’s cold and snowy right now, so pretty much everything has to be grown elsewhere and trucked in. Our costs are a bit on the high side mainly because I only buy organic food. I make up for it somewhat by cooking everything from scratch and by not eating out, and we don’t buy meat, dairy, or eggs, all of which tend to be expensive. Even with that, I know we do spend quite a bit on food. But given how little we spend on everything else, I’m ok with the higher-than-average food budget.

By: Deborah Schneider

Deborah Schneider — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 22:15:39 +0000

Dear FB,

Wow, it sounds as though you’re doing everything that you can to keep costs down. It seems as though you must live in an expensive region, however. The costs that you’ve noted would really put a hole in my budget.

Please be well.

Peace,

Deb